The Tiamat Sacrament

I really enjoyed The Tiamat Sacrament. I'm a little biased going into this, because I've always had a bit of a thing for dragons and stories about dragons. Breath of Fire was one of my favorite RPG series growing up, for example. So when I found a game about a dragon, the last of his kind, trying to save the world from an evil empire using magic and high technology to exterminate dragons and subjugate humans, it was right up my alley. But it was the attention to detail that realy drew me in.

For one thing, in an interesting departure from formula, you don't save the world. The entire game is spent in and around one small kingdom. Towards the end of the game, depending on what you've done and how well you've played, you might get a few hints about the wider world and how this story is just a part of a much larger geopolitical picture... or you might not.

Here's the basic idea: The evil usurper Ry'jin, who killed and supplanted the king of Ildria, has hunted dragons, a noble race who were once the guardians of the world, to extinction. He's acquired technology that allows him to steal the magical essence of dragons and turn it into great destructive power. But he missed one dragon egg, hidden away behind a waterfall. It hatches into the young dragon Az'uar, our protagonist.

As Az'uar starts to become aware of the world around him and of the situation he's in, he gets involved with a resistance movement whose goal is to overthrow Ry'jin. They rally around him, the last living dragon, as a symbol of hope, especially when he learns about ways to gather power from the remains of the Great Seven, the strongest and wisest of the dragons before they were hunted to extinction. So he heads out on a quest to gather their powers, so that he might face Ry'jin and free the people from his dominion.

Yeah, the basic idea's a bit cliched, but it's the details that really make a story come alive, and Drakonais has done an amazing job with the details. What appears to be a standard-issue RPG fetch quest turns out to have major political implications in the bigger picture. We get an explanation for why Ry'jin overthrew the king that actually makes sense, giving an added layer of depth to the backstory beyond the standard "evil usurper who is evil decides to kill the king and become an evil overlord because he's just evil like that" excuse backstory. And the characters are aware of certain aspects of the game mechanics and use that knowledge to guide their actions, but it's done in a subtle enough way that there's no sense of fourth-wall breakage.

The maps are very well-done. They felt like realistic locations, usually. The volcano area's completely straight treatment of lava as something barely harmful strains suspension of disbelief almost to the breaking point, but that was the only serious problem I had with it.

...except for the puzzles. Wow, the puzzles! Drakonais is apparently a very big fan of dynamic mazes, areas where you not only have to make your way though a maze but also reshape it as you go, in order to reach the other side. The first few were a lot of fun, but they get harder and harder, and the last few are really more trouble than they're worth. Even with the YouTube videos he posted showing solutions, I couldn't complete one of them because it relies on very precise timing, and I just ended up editing the map to create a way around it.

The battles were really well done, especially considering the limitations of the RM2003 battle engine. Things kept up a decent pace throughout the game, and there was always a certain level of real difficulty present, without making you feel all paranoid like any minor mistake could end in a game over. The battles rely heavily on scripted effects for stuff like Az'uar's breath weapons and Xandra's Observe skill (think Final Fantasy's blue mage class), and the mechanics are interesting and well-balanced. The final boss had one exploitable flaw that made him way too easy, but by that point you care more about the story than the fight anyway.

One thing that kind of bugged me was how many RTP standard characters I saw, including the sprites and battle sprites of the two non-draconic party members. It would have been nice to see some more original art in the game. There was a lot of original music, though. I recognized a few pieces from the soundtrack, such as a highly appropriate rendition of Golbez, Clad In Darkness when you finally confront Ry'jin, but the majority of it was custom made, and it really improves the experience.

Overall I really found The Tiamat Sacrament to be one of the more enjoyable RPG Maker games I've played. Drakonais took an interesting idea and turned it into a very good game through the liberal application of attention to detail. It has its rough edges, but nothing major, and I'll give it 4.5 stars.